LAHORE, Nov 17: The city government neither has the equipment nor does it seem to have the will to exterminate the alarmingly large number of stray dogs in the city.

It receives over 10,000 complaints annually in this regard, but has not launched any significant drive to clear the city of stray dogs in years.

The sudden appearance of stray dogs on roads is one of the major causes of accidents. The carcasses of those run over by speeding vehicles are not removed. This is another source of inconvenience for the people.

Presence of stray dogs in residential areas is not only dangerous for people, especially children, but also contributes to noise pollution.

The city government has only an eight-member team to deal with the menace. The team has four vehicles for operations that are seldom conducted.

Many people say they have repeatedly filed complaints regarding the nuisance but to no avail.

The menace was highlighted when a six-year-old girl was torn apart by stray dogs in Bagh-i-Jinnah in the late 90s. The then government launched a swift campaign and started killing hundreds of stray dogs daily. However, the campaign could not continue for long.

Killing stray dogs has never been on the agenda of the city district government.

When contacted, officials of the city government for epidemic control claimed that they once used to kill about 50 dogs a day, using poison more than bullets. Poisoned meat was fed to dogs, they added.

The officials complained about shortage of manpower and equipment and unavailability of funds.

As much as Rs10 million was required annually to tackle the problem, they claimed.

They said the government had allocated over Rs5 million for operations like killing dogs and eliminating mosquitoes, but the funds had not been released so far.